President Mwai Kibaki
By PRESIDENT MWAI KIBAKI:
As a country, we have come of age. We deserve to enjoy the national euphoria occasioned by the historic August 4 Referendum.
When the results were announced by the Interim Independent Electoral Commission, the victory became common property of all Kenyans. The “Yes” and “No” divide ceased. This Friday each Kenyan can stand tall and be proud of our country’s monumental achievement. Read more…
Raila Odinga
Raila Odinga
On Friday, August 27, 2010, the old order has died and a new one born in our country. Our imprisonment in the colonial constitutional dispensation is over. The Imperial Presidency that the post-colonial regimes have created is now buried in history. A grand new republic — Kenya’s Second Republic – is born. Read more…
Dr Julius Kipng'etich
By JULIUS KIPNG’ETICH
The newly ratified Constitution offers Kenya the best chance ever of achieving prosperity in the league of Botswana, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Many of its checks and balances put public servants, including politicians, on a tight leash in the management of public institutions. Read more…
Mugo Kibati
Kenya has spoken. On August 27, the country celebrates the birth of the Second Republic.
The new Constitution has passed and with it, the old order has come to an end. This represents snapping of the last chains of top-down, discriminatory colonial governance. With this new dawn, Kenyans have overwhelmingly agreed on a new social contract to govern our affairs. Read more…
Dr Laila Macharia
By Dr Laila Macharia:
Article 43 of the new Constitution creates an expanded Bill of Rights. In addition to civil and political rights, like freedom of speech or association, that protect citizens from state oppression, it provides for socio-economic or “second generation” rights including health care, housing, sanitation, food, safe water, social security and education. Read more…
Peter Anyang Nyongó
By PROF PETER ANYANG NYONG’O
In 1982 when the Kanu regime under the presidency of Daniel arap Moi decided to make Kenya a one-party state by law, the late Mukaru Ng’ang’a, then a lecturer in history at the University of Nairobi, commented that imposing authoritarian rule on Kenyans by fiat would only drive opposition underground; and the opposition would even be more dangerous. Read more…
Prof Peter Kagwanja
Prof Peter Kagwanja
The new Constitution fulfils nearly a century of search across generations for a people-centered social contract, expressively articulated by Kenya’s founding fathers and mothers in the words of the national anthem: May justice be our shield and defender, may we dwell in unity, peace and liberty plenty be found within our borders. Read more…
Mutuma Mathiu
By MUTUMA MATHIU
Friday, for ordinary Kenyans, is a moment of freedom. Independence in 1963 allowed ordinary Africans to cross Government Road and enter the hitherto prohibited European areas, but it did not take the oppressive yoke of the colonial state off their necks, nor did it level the playing field of opportunity. Read more…
David Ndii
By DAVID NDII
Newly independent African countries faced two daunting challenges. The challenge of political development — namely, how to forge disparate tribes and races into stable nations; and the challenge of economic development — namely, meeting the high expectations of material improvement that the new citizens harboured. Read more…
Kenya Constitution
By WILLY MUTUNGA
My former professor and mentor, Professor Yash Ghai writes that “in general, as we know, a constitution is not a self-operating or self-executing instrument….The real task of establishing constitutionalism lies in other spheres: politics as construction of values and policies, the judiciary entrusted with the task of authoritative interpretation of the constitution, the rise of professionalism and civic associations to suffuse the public space with economic and social values and practices, enlightened leadership and public participation and vigilance of the people. Read more…
